Canada holdselections for legislatures or governments in several jurisdictions: for thefederal (national) government,provincial and territorial governments, andmunicipal governments. Elections are also held forself-governing First Nations and for many other public and private organizations includingcorporations andtrade unions. Municipal elections can also be held for both upper-tier (regional municipality orcounty) and lower-tier (town, village, or city) governments.

Formal elections have occurred in Canada since at least 1792, when bothUpper Canada andLower Canada had their first elections. Canada's first recorded election was held in Halifax in 1758 to elect the1st General Assembly of Nova Scotia.^[1]

All Canadian citizens aged 18 or older may register and vote in federal elections.^[2] Elections for other levels of government may have additional residency or ownership requirements. For example, some municipalities allow both residents and non-resident landowners to vote.

The most recent Canadian federal election occurred onApril 28, 2025. TheConstitution limits terms for Parliament and all provincial legislatures to five years; current legislationfixes terms at four years at the federal level and in every province except Nova Scotia. However, as in otherWestminster systems, a parliamentary term may still be ended early due to a successfulvote of no confidence or asnap election called by the ruling government. Though not impossible, there have never been two general elections in the same calendar year, either at the federal level or in any province or territory.

Although only thefirst past the post election system is used currently in federal and all provincial elections in Canada, federal elections in the 1867-1870 period and elections in each province (except Quebec) used other election systems and multi-member districts at one time or another between 1867 and 1996. Through the years, Canadians have seen numerous instances of electoral reform and attempted electoral reform. Notably, attempts to change from first past the post to a different electoral system by referendum failed (or were ignored) inB.C. in 2005 and2018,P.E.I. in 2005,2016, and2019, andOntario in 2007. The territory of Yukonwill hold a referendum on electoral reform on November 3, 2025.^[3] Referendums on electoral reform have been proposed or cancelled in other provinces.

Summary of the 2025 Canadian federal election

Party		Party leader	Candidates	Seats					Popular vote
				2021	Dissol.	2025	Change from 2021	% seats	Votes	Vote change	%	pp change	% where running
	Liberal	Mark Carney	342[a]	160	152	169	9	49.27%	8,595,488	3,038,859	43.76%	11.14pp	43.91%
	Conservative	Pierre Poilievre	342[b]	119	120	144	25	41.98%	8,113,484	2,366,074	41.31%	7.57pp	41.43%
	Bloc Québécois	Yves-François Blanchet	78	32	33	22	10	6.41%	1,236,349	65,276	6.29%	1.35pp	27.65%
	New Democratic	Jagmeet Singh	342[c]	25	24	7	18	2.04%	1,234,673	1,801,675	6.29%	11.53pp	6.30%
	Green	Elizabeth May & Jonathan Pedneault	232	2	2	1	1	0.29%	238,892	158,096	1.22%	1.11pp	1.75%
	People's	Maxime Bernier	247	–	–	–		–	136,977	704,016	0.70%	4.24pp	0.94%
	Independent and No Affiliation		177[d]	–	3	–		–	39,498	7,017	0.20%	0.01pp	0.31%
	Christian Heritage	Rodney L. Taylor	32	–	–	–		–	10,065	1,080	0.05%		0.46%
	Rhinoceros	Chinook B. Blais-Leduc	29	–	–	–		–	7,063	978	0.04%		0.41%
	United	Grant S. Abraham	16	New	–	–	New	–	6,061	New	0.03%	New	0.57%
	Libertarian	Jacques Y. Boudreau	16	–	–	–		–	5,561	796	0.03%		0.57%
	Marxist–Leninist	Anna Di Carlo	35	–	–	–		–	4,996	464	0.03%		0.25%
	Communist	Elizabeth Rowley	24	–	–	–		–	4,685	15	0.02%	0.01pp	0.36%
	Centrist	A. Q. Rana	19	–	–	–		–	3,314	2,666	0.02%	0.02pp	0.31%
	Canadian Future	Dominic Cardy	19	New	–	–	New	–	3,123	New	0.02%	New	0.27%
	Animal Protection	Liz White	7	–	–	–		–	1,301	1,245	0.01%		0.32%
	Marijuana (D)	Blair T. Longley	2	–	–	–		–	133	1,898	0.00%	0.01pp	0.09%
	Vacant				4	—N/a
Total valid votes									19,641,663	2,727,388	100.00%	–	–
Total rejected ballots									169,857	5,711	0.86%	0.16pp	–
Total			1,959	338	338	343	5	100.00%			100.00%	–	100.00%
Electorate (eligible voters)/turnout													–
Note: Official results with two judicial recounts to be completed.
Source(s):Elections Canada[6][7] (D) indicates a party deregistered before the next election

Elections in Canada (federal, provincial, or Territorial) are organised by their respective election regulatory bodies as follows:

Canadian electoral regulatory bodies

Jurisdiction	Electoral regulatory body (year established)	Periodic oversight of legislative seat contests in any given election	Date of most recent major election	Next major election scheduled for / required by
Federal	Elections Canada (1920)	Lower house: All 343 seats in theHouse of Commons of Canada (every 4 years, on the third Monday of October)	April 28, 2025	October 15, 2029
British Columbia	Elections BC (1995)	Unicameral: All 93 seats in theLegislative Assembly of British Columbia (every 4 years, on the third Saturday of October)	October 19, 2024	October 21, 2028
Alberta	Elections Alberta (1977)	Unicameral: All 87 seats in theLegislative Assembly of Alberta (every 4 years, on the third Monday of October, notwithstanding exceptions)	May 29, 2023	October 18, 2027
Saskatchewan	Elections Saskatchewan (1959)	Unicameral: All 61 seats in theLegislative Assembly of Saskatchewan (every 4 years, on the last Monday of October)	October 28, 2024	October 30, 2028
Manitoba	Elections Manitoba (1980)	Unicameral: All 57 seats in theLegislative Assembly of Manitoba (every 4 years, on the first Tuesday of October)	October 3, 2023	October 5, 2027
Ontario	Elections Ontario (1919)	Unicameral: All 124 seats in theLegislative Assembly of Ontario (every 4 years, on the first Thursday of June)	February 27, 2025	June 7, 2029
Quebec	Élections Québec (1945)	Unicameral: All 125 seats in theNational Assembly of Quebec (every 4 years, on the first Monday of October)	October 3, 2022	October 5, 2026
Nova Scotia	Elections Nova Scotia (1991)	Unicameral: All 55 seats in theNova Scotia House of Assembly (every 4 years, on the third Tuesday of July)	November 26, 2024	July 18, 2028
New Brunswick	Elections New Brunswick (1967)	Unicameral: All 49 seats in theLegislative Assembly of New Brunswick (every 4 years, on the third Monday of October)	October 21, 2024	October 23, 2028
Newfoundland and Labrador	Elections Newfoundland & Labrador (1991)	Unicameral: All 40 seats in theNewfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly (every 4 years, on the second Tuesday of October)	October 14, 2025	October 9, 2029
Prince Edward Island	Elections Prince Edward Island (1965)	Unicameral: All 27 seats in theLegislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island (every 4 years, on the first Monday of October)	April 3, 2023	October 4, 2027
Northwest Territories	Elections NWT (1997)	Unicameral: All 19 seats in theLegislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories (every 4 years, on the first Tuesday of October)	November 14, 2023	October 5, 2027
Yukon	Elections Yukon (2002)	Unicameral: All 21 seats in theYukon Legislative Assembly (every 4 years, on the first Monday of November)	November 3, 2025	November 5, 2029
Nunavut	Elections Nunavut (2003)	Unicameral: All 22 seats in theLegislative Assembly of Nunavut (every 4 years, on the last Monday of October)	October 27, 2025	October 29, 2029

TheParliament of Canada has twochambers: theHouse of Commons has 343 members, elected for a maximum five-year term in single-seatelectoral districts throughfirst-past-the-post voting, and theSenate has 105 members appointed by thegovernor general on theadvice of theprime minister. Senators are given permanent terms (up to age 75) and thus often serve much longer than the prime minister who was primarily responsible for their appointment.

National elections are governed by theCanada Elections Act and administered by an independent agency,Elections Canada.Canadians vote for their choice for localMember of Parliament (MP), who will hold a seat in the House of Commons. Underfirst-past-the-post voting, the plurality winner is elected and then votes as the named representative of that specificconstituency in the House of Commons. But in practice usually voting in line with other members of their party caucus in the House of Commons.

The leader of the party most likely to hold the confidence of the House of Commons becomes the prime minister. They stay in power as long as they hold the support of a majority of MPs in the House of Commons.

Most MPs are members of apolitical party, although candidates may stand for election and be elected asindependents unaffiliated with any political party. The practice of listing candidates' party affiliation on ballots began with the1972 election. Since then, the Canada Elections Act has required that a local candidate running under a party label be directly approved by the leader of their affiliated party, effectively centralizing the candidate nomination process.^[8]

Once MPs are elected, sitting members of parliament are permitted to "cross the floor" switching party affiliation without having to first resign and restand for office under their new affiliation. Sitting members may also be dismissed from or voluntarily leave their party and become independents. By-elections (casual vacancies) also may change the party seat counts. As a result, the distribution of seats by party affiliation often fluctuates between elections.

Although several parties are typically represented in parliament, Canada historically has hadtwo dominant political parties: theLiberal Party and theConservative Party, which was preceded by theProgressive Conservative Party and theConservative Party (1867–1942). However, in the 2011 federal election, the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP), took the second largest caucus. While other parties have sometimes formed theOfficial Opposition, the41st Parliament (2011–2015) was the first in which the Liberals did not form either the government or the Official Opposition.

Every government sinceConfederation has been either Liberal or Conservative with the exception of theUnionist government duringWorld War I, which was a coalition of Conservatives and some Liberals. Most have been majority governments (one party holding a majority of seats in the House of Commons, even if not holding a majority of votes cast in the last election). Many times due to strong showing by "third parties", no party (neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives) captured a majority of seats in the House of Commons, thus producing a minority government. Faced with such a situation, the Liberals and the NDP signed aConfidence and Supply Agreement in 2022, the first of its kind in Canada.^[9]

If a government loses aconfidence motion, traditionally the prime minister asks the governor general to call an election and traditionally the governor general follows that advice. However, the viceroy's compliance is not assured -- the governor general has the right to seek out another party leader who is thought to command the confidence of the House (support from majority of the MPs) and ask them to form a government. This happened in 1926 and is referred to as theKing–Byng Affair.

Strictly speaking, the five-year time limitation is applied to the life of the parliament or assembly in question — that body is not deemed to have been formed until the return of thewrits and ceases to exist the moment it isdissolved. It is therefore legally possible for slightly more than five years to elapse betweenelection days, as was the case between the1930 and1935 elections. As well, under emergency situations it is possible to extend the life of the government asPrime Minister Borden did - the1917 election took place six years and three months after the previous election.

Although the law allows for a five-year gap between election and dissolution, there have been in fact only two gaps since 1974 that approached the five-year limit:1974-1979 and1988-1993. When no party secures a majority of seats, it is common for a government to last just a couple years or less. (The 1979 government of Joe Clark lasted just six months.)^[10] As well, a party with a majority of seats may decide to call an election early, hoping to win more seats and fearing that postponement will lower its chances for reelection.^[11] At the federal level, there have been eightgeneral elections since 2000.

All provinces had brought in fixed-term legislation, dictating that a government will run only four years, but even where such legislation is in effect, variation is possible.^[12]

It is also possible for a general election to be delayed should Canada be embroiled in awar orinsurrection. This provision was enacted to allow Prime Minister SirRobert Borden to delay a federal election for about a year during theFirst World War.^{[citation needed]} Since then, the provision has only been used twice, both times by provincial governments — Ontariodelayed an election for a few weeks in the year following the Armistice in 1918. Saskatchewan was the only jurisdiction to delay a general election by more than a year, due toWorld War II, but held anelection in 1944, one week more than six years after the previous vote.

The Canadian population generally misunderstands the electoral system, with most citizens believing they vote to directly elect the prime minister; that the majority choice is elected in each district; that a majority government in the House of Commons had support of a majority of voters; that a party with the most seats in the House of Commons has the right to control the House of Commons.^[13] In 2008, Conservative politicians tried to use the public's misconception of how governments are formed to defend its decision to maintain its grip on power despite not having a majority of seats in the House of Commons.^{[n 1]} Attempts to correct erroneous claims are often delegitimized as politically motivated.^[14]

Hugo Cyr found in 2017 that the Canadian media's habit of announcing, before polls close on election nights, which party will form the next government misrepresents the process of the governor general or lieutenant governors appointing cabinet or executive councils, respectively, "as automatic, merely a matter of arithmetic".^[15]

The leader of a party that secures a majority of seats in the House of Commons or other legislative assembly is the obvious choice to be prime minister or premier. And when no party has majority of seats, the leader of the political party that wins the plurality of seats in the elected body is typically called by thegovernor general orlieutenant governor to form a government. But this is not a requirement. The relevant viceroy must appoint ashead of government whoever can command theconfidence of the elected house. This means a party that does not win the majority of seats, or even the plurality of seats in an election, can still govern if it allies itself with another party or other parties in the same legislative chamber, so as to, combined, hold the majority of seats, whether forming acoalition government or not.^[16] Only a few coalition governments have existed in Canadian history. To produce a working majority, Liberals and the NDP signed a Confidence and Supply Agreement in 2022, the first of its kind in Canada, which allowed the Liberal minority government to rule for longer than most minority governments have done so historically.^[9] In many cases, minority governments have been sustained in power due to passage of bills by ad hoc case-by-case multi-party support, at least for a couple years.

Due to many votes not being used to elect the winner in each of the 340 or so ridings in Canada, a party's share of seats in the House of Commons may vary considerably from the party's share of votes cast. Smaller parties have almost always received fewer seats than their due share. Disproportional artificially-produced one-party sweep of a province's seats is often produced.^[17] On occasion a party with more votes may receive fewer seats than a party with fewer votes.^[18] Such situations lead some to call for electoral reform andproportional representation. ("Adopted and attempted electoral reform" is discussed below.)

Section 4 of theCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms limits the term of any federal, provincial, or territorial parliament to a maximum of five years after the return of the writs of the last election. On November 6, 2006, theParliament of Canada amended theCanada Elections Act to introduce a requirement that each federal general election must take place on the third Monday in October in the fourth calendar year after the previous poll, starting with October 19, 2009.^[19][20][21] Since then, allprovinces and territories enacted similar legislation establishing fixed election dates, but in 2025 Nova Scotia repealed its law.^[22]

These laws, nevertheless, do not curtail the power of the governor general or a provincial lieutenant governor to dissolve a legislature prior to the fixed election date on the advice of the relevant first minister or due to amotion of no confidence.^[23]

Even where such legislation is in effect, voluntary variation is possible.^[12]

By-elections can be held between general elections when seats become vacant through the resignation or death of a member. The date of the by-election is determined by the governor general, who must call it between 11 and 180 days after being notified of the seat vacancy by theSpeaker of the House of Commons.

The federal government can also holdnationwide referendums on major issues. The last federal referendum was held in 1992, on proposed constitutional changes in theCharlottetown Accord. On occasion, one particular issue will dominate an election, and the election will in a sense be a virtual referendum. The most recent instance of this was the1988 election, which was considered by most parties to be a referendum onfree trade with the United States.

Every Canadian citizen 18 years of age or older has the right to vote, except for theChief Electoral Officer and the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer. In theCanada Elections Act, inmates serving a sentence of at least two years were prohibited from voting, but on October 31, 2002, theSupreme Court of Canada ruled inSauvé v. Canada that such a law violated thesection 3 of the Charter, and was rendered of no force or effect.

The federalNational Register of Electors is updated to reflect various changes in the Canadian population, including address changes, reaching voting age, naturalization, and death.^[24] Every year, about 3,000,000 address changes are processed by Elections Canada from information obtained from theCanada Revenue Agency,Canada Post (via the National Change of Address service), provincial and territorial motor vehicle registrars, and provincial electoral agencies with permanent voters lists. Every year, about 400,000 Canadians reach voting age and 200,000 Canadians die, resulting in changes to the National Register of Electors based on information obtained from the Canada Revenue Agency, provincial and territorial motor vehicle registrars, and provincial electoral agencies with permanent voters lists. Additionally, over 150,000 individuals a year become naturalized Canadians, and are added to the National Register of Electors by Elections Canada based on information obtained fromCitizenship and Immigration Canada.

TheSupreme Court of Canada's 2019 decision inFrank v Canada (AG) ruled that non-resident citizens have the right to vote regardless of time living outside of Canada.^[25][26][27]

WhileSection Three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides that "every citizen of Canada has the right to vote",^[28] in practice only those citizens 18 years of age or older who resided in Canadaor had been abroad for fewer than five years were eligible to vote in federal elections from 1993 to 2019.^[29] The five-year limit was originally enacted as part of Bill C-114,An Act to Amend the Canada Elections Act, in 1993; these amendments extended the special ballot to certain prisoners, and Canadians "living or travelling" abroad.^[30] Exemptions to the five-year limit existed for members of theCanadian Armed Forces, employees of the federal or a provincial government stationed abroad, employees of certain international organizations, and their cohabitants.^[29]

Jean-Pierre Kingsley, then the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada for 15 years, explicitly recommended in his 2015 official post-election report that Parliament remove the five-year limit by amendment, but no action was taken.^[31][32]

In May 2014, theOntario Superior Court of Justice ruled in favour of Canadian expatriates Gillian Frank and Jamie Duong's claim that the five-year limit was an unconstitutional restriction on theright to vote, in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, leading to a period of fourteen months during which all Canadian expatriates could apply to be on the register of electors.^[33] However, the decision was reversed 2–1 on appeal at theCourt of Appeal for Ontario on July 20, 2015, in a judicial opinion citing Canada's history of using a residence-basedelectoral district system and a justification based onsocial contract theory, which held that the five-year limit was a permissible limitation of the constitutional right to vote underSection One.^[34][35] In response to the appellate court ruling,Elections Canada implemented changes in August 2015 to require expatriates already on the register to declare an intended date of return.^[36] The decision from the Court of Appeal was subsequently appealed to theSupreme Court of Canada, which announced on April 14, 2016, that it would hear the case.^[37] The court ultimately overturned the appellate court's decision, with the majority finding that "the disenfranchisement of long-term non-resident citizens not only denies them a fundamental democratic right, but also comes at the expense of their self-worth and their dignity."^[27]

The length of election campaigns can vary, but under the Elections Act, the minimum length of a campaign is 36 days and the maximum length of the campaign is 50 days.^[38]Section 5 of theCharter also requires that the Parliament sit at least once every twelve months; therefore, a campaign would have to conclude in time for returns to be completed and parliament to be called into session within twelve months of the previous sitting. The federal election date must be set on a Monday (or Tuesday if the Monday is a statutory holiday).

The first two elections, the1867 election and the1872 election, took place over several weeks.

The 1872 election was both the second shortest and the longest campaign in history. Parliament was dissolved on July 8, 1872, while the writ was dropped on July 15, 1872. Voting occurred from July 20 to October 12. Therefore, the campaign started 12 days after dissolution of Parliament and 5 days after the writ, and was concluded 96 days (13 weeks plus 5 days) after dissolution and 89 days after the writ.^[39]

Every subsequent election has occurred on a single day. Of these elections, the longest election campaign, in terms of days from dissolution to election day, was that of1926 election,^[39] following theKing–Byng Affair, which lasted 74 days.

In terms of days from writ to election day, the longest campaign had been the1980 election, which lasted 66 days. It was surpassed by the2015 election, which was 78 days long from writ to election day, making it the longest campaign for a one-day election, exceeded in length only by that of 1872.

Prior to the adoption of the minimum of 36 days in law, there were six elections that lasted shorter periods of time. The last of these was the1904 election which occurred many decades before the minimum was imposed.

In practice, the prime minister will generally keep a campaign as brief as is legal and feasible, because spending by parties is strictly limited by the Elections Act. The maximum spending by each party is increased by 1/37th of the maximum for each day that the campaign exceeds 37 days. The1997,2000 and2004 elections were all of the minimum 36 days in length which has led to a common misconception that electionsmust be 36 days long. However, prior to 1997, elections averaged much longer: aside from the 47-day campaign for the1993 election and the 51-day campaign for the1988 Election, the shortest election period afterWorld War II was 57 days and many were over 60 days in length.

Much speculation had surrounded how long the campaign for the39th federal election would be in 2006, especially as it became certain the election would be called in the weeks preceding Christmas 2005. The government ofJoe Clark, which fell on December 13, 1979, recommended a campaign of 66 days for theresulting election, and nothing legal barred a similarly lengthened campaign. In the end, the 2006 election was called on November 29, 2005, for January 23, 2006 — making a 55-day-long campaign.^[39]

All of Canada's provinces and territories use the sameplurality voting system used in federal elections (First-past-the-post voting). However, since elections are monitored and organized by an independent provincial and territorialelection commission, a province may legally change itselectoral system should its parliament wish to do so. This would not require permission from the federal government or the Parliament of Canada. Federal elections formerly used a mixture of first-past the-post andplurality block voting; provincial elections formerly used a variety of electoral methods See "Electoral reform" below.

In the ten provinces andYukon, elections are contested by candidates either representing political parties or running as independents. Territorial elections in theNorthwest Territories andNunavut are held on a fully non-partisan basis, due to those territories' use of aconsensus government model.

All Canadian provinces and Yukon, have electoral systems dominated by majorpolitical parties. In most provinces the leading parties are the same parties prominent at the federal level. However, the provincial party may or may not have an official affiliation with the federal party of the same name. Thus, names of provincial parties can sometimes be misleading when associating a provincial party with a national party, although the respective ideologies are usually fairly similar.

TheConservative Party of Canada has no provincial wings and none of the current provincial Progressive Conservative Parties are formally linked with the federal party as they all predate the 2003 establishment of the federal party, which resulted in the formal disbanding of theProgressive Conservative Party of Canada. Some provincial parties (such as Alberta) formally broke off links with the federal party prior to the merger.

In British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec the provincial Liberal parties are independent of theLiberal Party of Canada, while in the other provinces, the provincial Liberal parties are autonomous entities that retain formal links with the federal party.

All provincial wings of theNew Democratic Party are fully integrated with the federal party, and members of the provincial party are automatically also members of the federal party. TheGreen Party has provincial counterparts that are directly affiliated but do not share membership or organizational structure and support.

InSaskatchewan andYukon, the political parties, theSaskatchewan Party and theYukon Party, respectively, have no federal counterpart, although they are both ideologically conservative.

The following table summarizes the results of the most recentprovincial and territorial elections. A link to complete lists for each province and territory is below. The winning party is indicated inbold and by the coloured bar at the left of the table.

This table shows the party standings as a result of the most recent election, and not the current representation in legislatures; refer to the articles on the individual houses for the current state.

For lists of general elections in each province and territory, see the infobox at the bottom of the article.

¹Note:Nunavut does not have political parties, and political parties in theNorthwest Territories were disbanded in 1905. MLAs in both territories are elected asindependents and the legislatures function under aconsensus government model.

²Note: Provincial Liberal parties that are not affiliated with the federal Liberal Party of Canada.

Municipal elections are held in Canada for the election of local governments. Most provinces hold all of their municipal elections on the same date. The mayor is elected in a city-wide contest. Councillors (or aldermen) are elected through eitherward orat-large systems, every two, three or four years, depending on the province.Plurality block voting is used in at-large elections and where wards elect multiple members; otherwiseFirst past the post is used. (London, Ontario did adoptInstant-runoff voting but has been banned from using that system.)^{[citation needed]}

A minority of locations in Canada have localpolitical parties orelection slates, while most locations elect onlyindependents, or where the candidate has party ties, no party identification is allowed on the ballot.

Canada is now the only major country in the world to use onlyFirst past the post in its federal and provincial elections. But in past times other systems were used or debated.

By one count, at the provincial level there have been ten instances of electoral reform in Canadian history. All of them were achieved by passage of normal legislation, without referendum.^[40] There have been no instances in Canadian history of electoral reform being achieved after the holding of a referendum.

Reforms and attempted reforms are outlined below.

At various times in the 19th and 20th centuries, federal elections and those held in every province used multi-member districts to elect all or some of its members. The systems used includedBlock Voting,Single transferable voting,Limited voting and a system where each seat was filled through a separate contest. Limited voting usually resulted in mixed multi-party representation, according representation to both the majority and at least the largest minority. STV resulted in mixed multi-party representation and every candidate that had quota were elected, thus every party with substantial backing in the district got some representation.^[41][42] Block voting in multi-member districts usually (but not always) produced one-party sweeps of the district's seats.^[43]

Now federal elections — and all provincial and territorial elections — use only single-member districts, a situation that came about through electoral reform.^[44]

Eleven ridings elected multiple MPs (two at a time) at one time or another, between 1867 and 1968. These were Ottawa, West Toronto, Hamilton, Halifax (NS), Cape Breton (NS), Pictou (NS), St. John City and County (NB), Victoria and three in PEI: King's County, Queen's County and Prince County.^[43]

All the provinces and territories (except Nunavut) once used multiple-member districts. Most of the multiple-member districts elected just two, but others elected 5 to 7 or more. Ten MLAs were elected in the Winnipeg district from 1920 to 1949.^[44]

The provinces and territories switched to electing all their members in single-member districts elected throughFirst past the post in these years:

• Quebec1867
• North-West Territories 1894 (see1891 North-West Territories general election)
• Yukon1920
• Ontario1926
• Manitoba 1954
• Alberta1956
• Saskatchewan 1967
• New Brunswick 1974
• Newfoundland and Labrador 1975
• Nova Scotia 1978
• BC1990
• PEI1996

(PEI's elections were special cases. Each district elected two members. At one time voters who owned property in the district voted for the Councilman while voters resident in the district joined with the property-owners to vote for the Assemblyman. Later the exact same voters were allowed to vote for each of the two members in a district but still each seat was filled in separate contest.)^[43]

Toronto's three MPPs were elected throughLimited voting, where each voter could cast up to two votes. Later Toronto MPPs were elected in two-seat districts, with each seat elected separately through single-winner First Past The Post voting. This ended in 1926 when all the MPPs in the province began to be elected in single-member districts.

For the 1909, 1913 and 1921 election Alberta adopted multiple-member city-wide districts in one or both of the cities of Edmonton and Calgary. Alberta's two army representatives were elected in1917 in one contest. Also in 1921, the city of Medicine Hat was a two-seat district. Voters cast multiple votes under thePlurality block voting to electMLAs.^[45]

In 1914, the three Winnipeg districts --Winnipeg Centre,Winnipeg South andWinnipeg North — were each given a second member. Each seat was filled through a separate contest. The same system was used in the 1915 election.

In 1920Winnipeg was made into a ten-member city-widedistrict. Manitoba began to useSingle transferable voting in the new district. Later the province adoptedAlternative Voting in single-member rural districts.^[44]

In 1949 Winnipeg was divided into three four-seat districts. St. Boniface got a second member and switched from AV to STV to elect its MLAs.^[44]

After the election of theUnited Farmers of Alberta in 1921, Alberta maintained its existing mixture of multi-member districts and single-member districts. In 1924 Alberta adoptedSingle transferable voting in the cities' multi-member districts and theInstant-runoff voting system in single-member rural districts. (It was the first instance in North America where all the members in a legislature were elected through non-plurality methods.) This mixed system was in use until 1956. In 1956 the province brought in consistent single-member districts andFirst past the post elections. Medicine Hat reverted to being a single-member district before the 1930 election (IRV was then used there).^[45]

Canadian MPWilliam Charles Good introduced legislation in the House of Commons in June 1922 that would have seenInstant-runoff voting used in each riding where more than two candidates were competing and he also called for demonstration multi-member districts in to provide experience ofproportional representation. However the bill was talked out and nothing was changed.^[46]

In 1952, BC adopted theAlternative Voting system. It retained its mixture of single-member districts and multi-member districts. In the later, it held separate contests for each seat.preferential ballots was used for the first time in a BC general election. After 1953 election the province returned to its previous electoral system, a mixture of single-member and multi-member districts, of Block Voting and FPTP, which in turn was replaced by consistent FPTP single-member-district contests in1990.^[47]

The Liberal government of Quebec proposed electoral reform in 2004, which was scheduled to be passed in the fall of 2006 without a referendum. The project was postponed due to divergent views on how to improve it.

In a 2005 referendum 57.7% of British Columbians voted in favour of theSingle Transferable Vote system. However the government required a vote of 60% to pass the change, and the vote result was ignored.

Prince Edward Island held a referendum in 2005 regarding the adoption ofmixed member proportional representation. The motion was defeated.^[48]

A referendum was held in Ontario in 2007 on the question of whether to establish amixed member proportional representation (MMP) system for elections to theLegislative Assembly of Ontario. The vote was strongly in favour of the existingplurality voting or first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.

A referendum on the issue of electoral reform in New Brunswick was proposed for 2008 by theProgressive Conservative Party, but the party was defeated in the September 2006 election and the new Liberal government cancelled the vote.

A referendum for theproportional representation (PR) system was held in British Columbia on May 12, 2009. The adoption of PR was defeated, with 61% of voters preferring First past the post (FPTP) over Proportional Representation.^[49]

In the 2015 federal election, both of the main opposition parties (the federal Liberals and NDP) promised to implement electoral reform no later than the next scheduled election. The NDP has long supportedMixed Member Proportional, a hybrid system proposed by the Law Commission in which voters would cast two ballots (one for a riding representative and one for their preferred party, with member elected from a regional and open list).

By comparison, the Liberals led byJustin Trudeau promised to review numerous electoral reform options through an"all party parliamentary committee" and to implement the changes in time for the next election. Trudeau promised to make the 2015 election "Canada's lastfirst-past-the-post election". There are differences between the political parties over which alternative system would be better.

67% of Canadians voted in 2015 for parties that promised to replace the voting system. 88% of experts brought forward by the Liberal government recommended a proportional representation voting system; 96% rejected Trudeau's preferredInstant-runoff voting system.^[50] On December 1, 2016, the all party Special Committee on Electoral Reform released its final report, recommending that the government design a system of proportional representation with agallagher index score of 5 or less, and hold anational referendum with that system against the current system. The Liberal members of the all party special-committee urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to break his promise to change Canada's voting system.^{[51][52][53][54][55]}

On February 1, 2017, the new Liberal Minister of Democratic Institutions, Karina Gould, announced that Trudeau instructed her that a change of voting system would no longer be in her mandate. She claimed a lack of broad consensus among Canadians in favour of one particular type of electoral voting and that the various political parties could not agree on a new system as reasons for the abandonment of the 2015 election promise.^[56] On May 31, 2017, the House of Commons officially rejected the final report of the all party special-committee by a vote of 146–159, with the Conservatives, NDP, BQ, and Greens voting to concur in the report, and the Liberals voting not to, notably, two Liberal MPs,Sean Casey andNathaniel Erskine-Smithbroke whip and voted to concur in the report.^[57][58]

During the 2015 election campaign, the Liberal Party of Canada made a promise to implement a process to review the costs of campaign platforms in future elections.^[59] It was implemented within an omnibus bill passed in 2017, with responsibility assigned to theParliamentary Budget Office.^[59]

The 2016 Plebiscite on Democratic Renewal^[60] was a non-binding^[61]referendum held in theCanadian province ofPrince Edward Island between October 27 – November 7, 2016. The referendum asked which of fivevoting systems residents would prefer to use in electing members to theLegislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island.^[62][63][64] The referendum was conducted using Instant runoff voting, and no option was the choice of a majority in the first count. After three options were eliminated due to being un-electable, mixed member proportional representation received more than 52% support on the final count. But government ignored the result, holding another referendum in 2019.^[65]

In accordance to campaign promises, the BC NDP (In a confidence and supply agreement with the Greens) scheduled a plebiscite to be held between October 22 and November 30, 2018, with voting done through mail for those registered to vote.^[66] 61.3% of voters voted for retaining First Past The Post.

the 2019 referendum ended in defeat.On the question "Should Prince Edward Island change its voting system to a mixed member proportional voting system?", 52 percent voted against change while only 48 percent voted in favour. But neither side took a majority of votes in 60 percent of the districts so government did not consider it a clear decision.^[67] In 2021/2022, PEI again investigated switching away from the FPTP system.^[68]

CAQFrançois Legault was elected on a promise to reform the electoral system within a year of his victory in 2018. On September 25, 2019,Minister of JusticeSonia LeBel presented Bill 39,An Act to establish a new electoral system which aims to replace theFirst-past-the-post electoral system in favour of amixed-member proportional representation system. According to the bill, theNational Assembly would have kept 125 members. Of the 125 members, 80 would have been elected by receiving a plurality of votes in single-member districts matching the 78federal ridings with the addition of 2 unique districts:Îles-de-la-Madeleine andUngava). The remaining 45 members would have been chosen according to their order in a regional party list. All 17regions of Québec would have been guaranteed at least one MNA.^[69]

Bill 39 was intended to be debated in the legislature before June 2021. The bill's implementation would have been contingent on popular support expressed in a referendum held on the same day as the general election.^[70] Was this referendum successful, then the first legislature to be elected undermixed-member proportional would have been the 44th, in October 2026 at the latest. On April 28, 2021, Justice Minister LeBel informed a legislative committee hearing that the government would not move forward with a referendum on electoral reform in 2022. LeBel blamed theCOVID-19 pandemic for altering the government's timeline and could not commit to providing an alternate date for the referendum, effectively ending discussions about electoral reform in Quebec.^[71]

See also Category: Electoral reform in Canada

• Argyle, Ray,Turning Points: The campaigns that changed Canada, 2004 and before. (2004); Scholarly analysis of 15 major national and provincial elections from 1866 to 2004.online
• Duffy John.Fights of our Lives: Elections, Leadership, and the Making of Canada (Harper Collins, 2002); Popular coverage of all major elections 1867 to 1988; heavily illustrated.online

• Granatstein, J. L.Prime ministers: Ranking Canada's leaders (1999)online evaluates all 20 prime ministers from 1867 to 1999.

• Elections Canada
• CBC Digital Archives—Voting in Canada: How a Privilege Became a Right
• CBC Digital Archives—Campaigning for Canada
• Canadian Governments Compared
• U.S. State Department estimates of Canadian elections
• Canada Elections Atlas - Federal

• Elections in Canada
• Politics of Canada
• Government in Canada
• Political history of Canada
• Electoral reform in Canada

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